This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Red Shoe: Actually, didn't Charlie end up worse off in Flowers for Algernon? Aside from the whole Hope Spot issue, it's at least strongly implied that the degeneration of his brain is going to eventually kill him.
Looney Toons: It certainly killed Algernon, whose mousy development and decline was the key microcosm/symbol for Charlie himself.
Looney Toons: (Months later) I finally added a cavil about Charlie possibly ending up worse than he started.
Bluetooth The Pirate: There's actually a reference to the book in Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex. One of the (fundamentaly identical) Tachikoma robots is often seen reading actual printed books. He seems to have a connection to Flowers for Algernon. The Tachis themselves develop real intelligence, not just a simulation, and it ends up being their undoing. One can't have curious, child-like tanks backing up one's counterterrorist units, after all. So the Tachikoma are sent back to the lab, where the one who read books was dismantled and dissected for study. The heroes of Section9end up regretting this decision later.
Ununnilium: I don't really see the twist in the last example.
Gus: This one?
A double twist on this:
- The Weekenders, "Imperfection" (Twist 1: Tish decides to stop trying to be perfect upon getting a negative comment on her report card... Twist 2: Tish decides to be perfect again to help her friends paint a kelp statue (!) they're making, but the statue ends up being returned unpainted: she replaced the kelp on it right after she'd painted it, just because she wanted it to be perfect... moral of the day: look at the big picture, morons!)
... we'll put it here. The entry seems to hang together pretty well without it.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Barclay's transformation in a ST:TNG episode. An alien probe gives him exponentially increasing intelligence and, once he interfaces himself to the ship, nearly god-like control over space and time. However, he can only use his abilities to transport the ship to the alien homeworld. The effect is, of course, removed by the end of the episode leaving him bereft, save for a savant-like ability to play 3d chess.
Rissa: This example is next to useless and really serves no purpose in its current state:
- This trope is the major plot point of a 1990 movie starring Robin Williams, Awakenings, which has some basis on real life and describes the treatment of catathonic patients with a then-new drug called L-Dopa.
Lostlibrarian: animorphs entry has a question beginning something like 'why didnt they just'- this probably belongs in the 'it just bugs me' animorphs page and, anyway, it's actually explained in the series' internal rules. Im gonna go ahead and delete it.
Aquila 89: I don't think the article describes Flowers for Algernon accurately. It's true that Charlie has a lot of problems after becoming superintelligent, but the cause for many of these are the memories of his terrible childhood. He does not regret taking part of the experiment. He says to the professors that he's grateful for what they did, though he criticizes them for a lot of other reasons. And when he realizes that his mental state will regress, he's utterly terrified.
Some Sort Of Troper: Rename: Flowers For Algernon -> "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome based on discusssion here
